<strong>I intend to wring several years of service out of my Cube.
I might get a laptop to go with it, but there are more urgent things demanding my wallet's attention for quite a while yet. Maybe a year from now I'll look at whatever the iBook has become and get that. It'll probably be more powerful than my Cube, but that's technology...</strong><hr></blockquote>
My plan exactly. My Cube is serving me well now as my desktop, but I bought it with the idea of retiring it to file server / broadband firewall role once I get my TiBook. I'd like to get dual 7410's with it but would go with a 1GHz single, and will probably wait until those specs are reached.
G5 sounds great, it will pump my AAPL stock up in a major way. I'd love to see it @ MWSF but not holding my breath. DDR RAM better be there though, or Apple might as well just sell portables.
My fondest wish for "One More Thing" would be a TiVo licensed PVR, Airport capable, Firewire controlled Multimedia Digital Hub. SuperDrive optional.
4) consumer level price (or, at any rate, Apple's interpretation of such)
Obviouly that rules out any of Apple's current offerings. As much as I like the iBook and TiBooks, they aren't the real OSX machines. The only machines that run OSX *very* (and therefore acceptably) quickly are the towers. However, with Sahara and Apollo on deck for 2002, tower-like performance may soon be coming to the 'books'.
When I can test a machine that ships with OSX as the default -- running Office, and a full suite of Adobe and Corel -- with nary a bounce in sight... At that point I'm sold. So, for an ibook that takes me to summer '02, or perhaps, should I spring for a low end tiBook, spring '02.
I'm waiting for a machine that can be my sole machine (for OSX and the major apps) for at least 4 years. Untill then my lowly PC sees continually less use, whilst the mac lab -- where, incedently, I'm being spoiled by DP533s and SP733s -- sees progressively more. I guess that is (combined with some major impending PPC advances) why I'm going to insist my laptop show about that level of performance.
i have finally settled into my own pseudo-lease program, where i will trade-in/sell my imac dv se 400 graphite in december, and then use the money i get from that towards the purchase of whatever consumer machine is available at macworld sf 2002.
i can do this because i still have a pismo 500 in the house, too, so i can use that while my consumer desktop is in limbo (and in case steve does a "here's the new wide-screen g4 imac! isn't it cool?!? it'll be available in march..").
that way i stay current on the consumer side (which is all i need), without having to pay full-price.
well, that's the plan, anyway. it's also predicated on the assumption that the imac will have a g4 of some sort in it come january (which is all i want now... the wide-screen would just be really cool...)
p.s. matsu, 4 years is pushing it for ANY model these days. considering the fact that 4 years ago was pre-g3 days of apple -- PowerMac 9600, PowerMac 8600, PowerMac 7300, PowerMac 5500, PowerMac 6500, et al. good computers to be sure, but they won't exactly run photoshop 6 or illustrator 9 (currently shipping major apps) or os x without upgrades and heavy tweaking.
it has been my experience that you can eek out 2 to 2.5 years of heavy-duty professional work out of computers before having to upgrade SOMEthing... whether that be hard drive, video card, processor, ram... whatever.
[edit] hmmm... a brief review of my apple history does show the first 233 beige g3's hit the market in 1997 as well, which are still serviceable, and supposedly supported for os x (though i have heard nothing but bad news on macfixit forums). so maybe you can get 4 years out of the machines. 'course, the g4's got stuck for the better part of a year within shouting distance of 450 mhz, so that time frame may be a bit warped. i'm sure steve will be whipping away on motorola to get those processors faster sooner going forward...
I meant the apps currently shipping when I pick up the machine, and whatever comes out within about a 12 month period from that point. I think an old version of photoshop can be just as useful as a new one, so when I get a machine I'll stick to the versions that run 'clean' and 'fast.' Newer versions will almost always do things a little better, but when they start to tax the hardware you lose a lot of your gains right there. I know people who use older versions of photoshop, Quark, and a multitude of plugins for professional work. Old software can be a great thing for an older machine. Also, one of my reasons for wanting to switch to Apple, with the way Apple is embracing open standards (ie PDF, unix) sharing files between older and newer versions of sofware ought to be easier when the time comes.
Yeah, wouldn't the G5 be nice.... <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
We are planning on buying a mac in the first half of '02. If the G5 is out, then we will go with that. If not, then a hi-end G4 machine, so my wife can do her Illustrator stuff on it. She's been making do with a POS win98 box (sorry for writing that here; feels sacreligious!), and it's been killing her. She can't wait until we have a real machine! :cool:
My next 'puter will be around MW2002, and at that time I will see waht Apple have to offer against the competition, you see I am into 3d rendering, and while I agree Macs are superior in almost every application, I have to say that the suck at 3d. For instance I have just seen a benchmark of a dual Athlon 1800XP (in the very Application I use every day) that is exactly 7x better than my G4 400, and still 2.5x better than Apples Dual800.
If the highend G5 comes within 10-20% of the score and price of whatever Dual Athlon system is available at the time (probably dual XP2600) I'll bite, If not Ill be a PC user by this time next year, with fond memories of the Apple platform.
Im really hoping those SPECmarks were right on theregister.co.uk, as I would love to stay Apple, but It is wasting me time&money.
Is there no way to set-up a dual athlon linux box as a render farm? I've heard that the major apps support this, and that if you're crunching big files it saves quite a bit of time. You could do that (if possible) and just upgrade your current proc if/when some apollo g4s become available. bonus is you keep your investment in mac software, and a platform that you know and enjoy.
Yeah, what happened to the days where paying more for Macs actually meant that you were getting a computer that was a much better performer than any PC. Heck, I'd pay a premium for a Mac even if was on par. We just want something competitive Apple.
That's what I was about to ask: When did Apple drop support for the tray-loading iMacs?? So many people bought those (and G3 desktops) on the premise that they were OS X-ready I don't think they ever could.
Edit: Whoops, nevermind. I read the other thread and see the error of my assumption. Carry on.
Being a broke-ass student my purchase will depend on my financial status after graduation. The Duronite will simply have to last until I finish school and start a job. If the job is good I will have whatever PowerMac is floating around at the time. If not so good then maybe iMac (or whatever equivalent) or build another PC.
Depends on the Choices I have around next summer. It will either be a (revB) G5 or a PC box with a warezed copy of XP. Being that I can customize my own GUI in XP and I don't have to run the ugly old Windows GUI that I hate is a big plus. I'll more than likely get the G5.. but MS did a smart thing in letting you customize XP's GUI.
My last Mac purchase was an iMac DV SE with Airport/ABS - and it JUST WORKS (OS 10.1.1, but I wish Apple had better support for my iSub...)! I've done various upgrades to my other Mac's - processors, video cards, hard drives - but now I've stopped the upgrade urge (I SWEAR!) and will buy whatever Apple has this spring. What I want is a superdrive and the power to render "quickly". My dissatisfaction with my iMac is that I have to let it render/convert overnight for some projects, which limits my experimentation and strive for perfection (or at least adequacy)!
However, I'm expecting (dual) 1GHz+ processors as a choice. Anything less will be somewhat of a disappointment, particularly considering the $3k it will cost.
If Apple doesn't release the G5 at MWSF I have to confess I don't really know what I am going to do. I am not going to buy a G4 if I KNOW the G5 is 6 months away...
Basically what I am asking/saying is: If not MWSF or Tokyo, then can we bet on MWNY???
I would think that MWNY would be reasonable, both in terms of marketing acpectations (that's when the OS X clock strikes twelve) and in terms of chip rollout (based on statements of THT, motoman and others who actually know about this stuff).
I think that there will be a lot of bitter people here after MWSF. The G5 simply isn't ready (or at least there is no evidence that it will be ready--which I know is not the same thing.) We also know that Apollo was rumored to be in PowerMacs at some point, so I expect the G4+ (Apollo or whatever) with some motherboard improvements at MWSF. I expect MWNY will see the rev 1 G5, with a second revision around a year from now.
These are not popular opinions. I know we would all love to see the G5 rollout in 7 weeks, but I don't think it will happen.
See, that's what I can't see happening. Apple releasing a new G4 with a new chip at faster speeds and then 6 months later releasing a new G5 with new chip at faster speeds.
I gotta believe if the Apollo comes out, it will be a while before the G5 comes, hell, they might as well call the Apollo the G5 so they can release in Jan and make everyone happy.
I was gonna wait until the next-gen Powerbook, but a co-worker wants to buy my iBook for his wife for Christmas, so I'm going to sell it to him and get a current Ti 667 right now. Of course, that's not a future computer...
Sol I guess my next FUTURE computer will be a G5 with Superdrive and a cinema display, in about a year.
Comments
<strong>I intend to wring several years of service out of my Cube.
I might get a laptop to go with it, but there are more urgent things demanding my wallet's attention for quite a while yet. Maybe a year from now I'll look at whatever the iBook has become and get that. It'll probably be more powerful than my Cube, but that's technology...</strong><hr></blockquote>
My plan exactly. My Cube is serving me well now as my desktop, but I bought it with the idea of retiring it to file server / broadband firewall role once I get my TiBook. I'd like to get dual 7410's with it but would go with a 1GHz single, and will probably wait until those specs are reached.
G5 sounds great, it will pump my AAPL stock up in a major way. I'd love to see it @ MWSF but not holding my breath. DDR RAM better be there though, or Apple might as well just sell portables.
My fondest wish for "One More Thing" would be a TiVo licensed PVR, Airport capable, Firewire controlled Multimedia Digital Hub. SuperDrive optional.
- A dual 2GHZ G5 with Altivec II
- DDR RAM (and no 1.5GB Limit)
- A Superdrive
- A Wildcat II thrashing graphics architecture
- Firewire II
- faster internal HDs
- Faster system Bus
- More cache
- A version of OS X that does what we were always told it would do for us and at the performance we've been waiting for - with no kernel panics
- 19" LCDs
- 10/100/1000 Ethernet
- Airport running at 50Mbs
In other words what a mac used to feel like and what PC users enjoy - at least from what I saw at the Digital Media Show in London yesterday
. . . oh damn, I've woken up
Once they get a combo drive, brighter higher res. display, and Final Cut Pro is available for OS X, I'll upgrade.
Of course I'd love a SuperDrive in my PowerBook, and some way to connect Apple's own displays, but I'm guessing that's not going to happen.
1) Laptop.
2) Macintosh
3) approx G4 867 level processor performance
4) consumer level price (or, at any rate, Apple's interpretation of such)
Obviouly that rules out any of Apple's current offerings. As much as I like the iBook and TiBooks, they aren't the real OSX machines. The only machines that run OSX *very* (and therefore acceptably) quickly are the towers. However, with Sahara and Apollo on deck for 2002, tower-like performance may soon be coming to the 'books'.
When I can test a machine that ships with OSX as the default -- running Office, and a full suite of Adobe and Corel -- with nary a bounce in sight... At that point I'm sold. So, for an ibook that takes me to summer '02, or perhaps, should I spring for a low end tiBook, spring '02.
I'm waiting for a machine that can be my sole machine (for OSX and the major apps) for at least 4 years. Untill then my lowly PC sees continually less use, whilst the mac lab -- where, incedently, I'm being spoiled by DP533s and SP733s -- sees progressively more. I guess that is (combined with some major impending PPC advances) why I'm going to insist my laptop show about that level of performance.
i can do this because i still have a pismo 500 in the house, too, so i can use that while my consumer desktop is in limbo (and in case steve does a "here's the new wide-screen g4 imac! isn't it cool?!? it'll be available in march..").
that way i stay current on the consumer side (which is all i need), without having to pay full-price.
well, that's the plan, anyway. it's also predicated on the assumption that the imac will have a g4 of some sort in it come january (which is all i want now... the wide-screen would just be really cool...)
p.s. matsu, 4 years is pushing it for ANY model these days. considering the fact that 4 years ago was pre-g3 days of apple -- PowerMac 9600, PowerMac 8600, PowerMac 7300, PowerMac 5500, PowerMac 6500, et al. good computers to be sure, but they won't exactly run photoshop 6 or illustrator 9 (currently shipping major apps) or os x without upgrades and heavy tweaking.
it has been my experience that you can eek out 2 to 2.5 years of heavy-duty professional work out of computers before having to upgrade SOMEthing... whether that be hard drive, video card, processor, ram... whatever.
[edit] hmmm... a brief review of my apple history does show the first 233 beige g3's hit the market in 1997 as well, which are still serviceable, and supposedly supported for os x (though i have heard nothing but bad news on macfixit forums). so maybe you can get 4 years out of the machines. 'course, the g4's got stuck for the better part of a year within shouting distance of 450 mhz, so that time frame may be a bit warped. i'm sure steve will be whipping away on motorola to get those processors faster sooner going forward...
[ 11-16-2001: Message edited by: rok ]
[ 11-16-2001: Message edited by: rok ]</p>
We are planning on buying a mac in the first half of '02. If the G5 is out, then we will go with that. If not, then a hi-end G4 machine, so my wife can do her Illustrator stuff on it. She's been making do with a POS win98 box (sorry for writing that here; feels sacreligious!), and it's been killing her. She can't wait until we have a real machine! :cool:
If the highend G5 comes within 10-20% of the score and price of whatever Dual Athlon system is available at the time (probably dual XP2600) I'll bite, If not Ill be a PC user by this time next year, with fond memories of the Apple platform.
Im really hoping those SPECmarks were right on theregister.co.uk, as I would love to stay Apple, but It is wasting me time&money.
HOPE YOU'RE LISTENING APPLE!
Someone who knows better than me please chime in.
Edit: Whoops, nevermind. I read the other thread and see the error of my assumption. Carry on.
[ 11-17-2001: Message edited by: haunebu ]</p>
Being a broke-ass student my purchase will depend on my financial status after graduation. The Duronite will simply have to last until I finish school and start a job. If the job is good I will have whatever PowerMac is floating around at the time. If not so good then maybe iMac (or whatever equivalent) or build another PC.
A brand new PowerMac would be the dream, though.
However, I'm expecting (dual) 1GHz+ processors as a choice. Anything less will be somewhat of a disappointment, particularly considering the $3k it will cost.
Basically what I am asking/saying is: If not MWSF or Tokyo, then can we bet on MWNY???
I think that there will be a lot of bitter people here after MWSF. The G5 simply isn't ready (or at least there is no evidence that it will be ready--which I know is not the same thing.) We also know that Apollo was rumored to be in PowerMacs at some point, so I expect the G4+ (Apollo or whatever) with some motherboard improvements at MWSF. I expect MWNY will see the rev 1 G5, with a second revision around a year from now.
These are not popular opinions. I know we would all love to see the G5 rollout in 7 weeks, but I don't think it will happen.
I gotta believe if the Apollo comes out, it will be a while before the G5 comes, hell, they might as well call the Apollo the G5 so they can release in Jan and make everyone happy.
why not just have the G4 towers replace the cubes sqaure and sell them to hobbyiest and semi-pro and gamers?
933 G4 1,499.99
1Ghz G4 1,699.00
or something like that?
Maybe a rack server, it would be great (as no hosting service accept towers anymore) but I don't think Apple will ever do this...
Sol I guess my next FUTURE computer will be a G5 with Superdrive and a cinema display, in about a year.